to do in oh nine: july and august

inventory time.


☆2008 leftovers☆

3 13-keep in touch with friends back home - mail a letter to someone once a month (4/12)
i sent postcards from the top of mt. fuji.

4 18-explore my neighborhood - go to 3 bars/restaurants within walking distance (2/3)
while walking around the neighborhood with Ro this past weekend, i discovered a great supermarket. it's a lot of "bulk" buying (not costco proportions, but considering normal japanese supermarket sizes, this place was for feeding BIG families). they had bags of pizza cheese, whole chickens, platters of chicken wings, and frozen peas (LOVE them!). it's not for your everyday grocery shopping, but once in a while, or when you're planning a party, this place is perfect. and they had nashi for cheap too! :) i know the goal says bars/restaurants, but i'm totally counting this gem of a find.


☆habits☆

1 stick with a face skin care routine
this was pretty much a moot point on fuji with a once a day face wash in the kitchen sink.

2 eat breakfast before work (/everyday, once i quit teaching)
i put in a good 3 hours of work before a hearty 7am breakfast, for a month.

3 make a japanese study schedule and stick to it (esp. once i quit teaching)
study? meh.

4 hoop (or do some kind of exercise) three times a week, even for just 10 minutes
i'll call 15 hour work days "exercise".


☆one time deals☆

4 work on mt fuji again
check!

7 travel to a new place in japan (maybe hokkaido? or osaka?)
i've already been, but this time (bought tickets to go with Ro in september) i actually speak japanese so maybe it'll feel like it's my first time to okinawa.

9 pass level one of the JLPT
just waiting for the results...(wince).


☆multiple time deals☆

5 call home once a month (4/12)
called from the top of mt. fuji. once in july and once in august even!



goals for september:

○ make progress on finding a job:
- follow up with Bee about the sales job.
- call Mr. W at the travel agency to schedule the interview he promised me.
- contact Former Real Estate Agent Lady who has a connection possibly worth re-sparking.

○ finish the data entry job for Mr. S.

○ sit down and spend some time on my mt. fuji photos. they are part of something bigger.

○ finish my charm quilt. it's be neglected for far too long.

○ go to a museum or a performance. one or the other. or both, for bonus points!

○ not a goal, but i'll get my JLPT test results in september, but don't hold your breath.

death by construction

i got a notice in my mailbox the other day about some parking lot construction in my neighborhood. i looked at the map with its little pink highlighted plot and sure enough, it was the empty lot behind my apartment. the empty lot behind my apartment is paved so i didn't think much until i woke up this morning at 8am to the sound of trucks, jackhammers and japanese men shouting who-knows-what.

i always mourn the death of yet another piece of land being turned into a parking lot. there's one 2 lots down and across the street that used to be an old apartment. another parking lot.

i realize the impracticality of planting a garden or (gasp) grass in a space like that, but would it be so nice? in the afternoon, the sun is blocked by my 5 story apartment building and it would be the perfect place for an afternoon nap.

(i'm sure the only way to be able to afford a plot that big close to the station is to have it be a source of income to pay back its own loan)

though, on the bright side, at least it's not a building that would block my bathroom window and in turn the air flow between there and my balcony on the other end of my apartment. i live on the 2nd floor, so anything that would possibly go in besides a parking lot would surely be arms length away, just like the building next door. i can open any of the five windows along that wall of my apartment and actually touch the building. so i guess a parking lot isn't all bad. the neighborhood boys will have to find somewhere else to play catch though...


i'm missing the countryside. reading the pioneer woman, shinshu life and other miscellaneous crafting blogs with photos of quilts in beautiful backyards isn't helping.

plus, i could really go for a bowl of cheerios with skim milk (and not the japanese low fat stuff) and fresh blueberries or peaches (or both!) on top...

two months in

my cell phone bill was through the roof last month.
and this month it's going to be even worse.

i'm tired of marathon phone calls
(or dinners out for that matter!)
that leave me in tears.
and, i knew i should have used skype.

sometimes i think it's not normal
to get into such heated conversations
or be so serious so early
and then part of me wonders (and hopes)
it's just a part of other peoples' relationships that no one sees.

maybe it's just that it's the beginning?
that once some time goes by, it'll settled into something comfortable?
or maybe it's just how it is with Ro?
have i fallen for another jealous boyfriend type?

sure there was Carr last year
but there was hardly a "we're dating exclusively" conversation
and there sure as hell wasn't a "we're breaking up" conversation
less than three months later when he just stopped calling or texting.

and before that, there was my high school sweetheart.
we dated until my sophomore year in college.

i don't exactly have a lot to go on.
not that that should really be an issue, but still,
something just seems so much harder than i imagine it should be.

and then, hey, just for kicks,
let's throw in a different country, culture and language,
you know, just to make things more interesting.

of course blogs can be deceiving,
but when its right, is it really as easy as it looks?


sigh.

and then another sigh for good measure.

this is my life.

"hello?"

"hey."

"hey, what's up?"

"um, would you be interested in working for ○○○? you know, the skate clothing brand?"

"yeah, that would be cool! what's the job?"

"it's sales, women's. ○0,000　a year. my boss just got a call about it. want me to introduce you?"

"yeah!"

"alright, i'll call you back later."

"okay..."

"bye."




these really are the kind of phone calls Bee makes.

to me.

you can pinch me now.


and then i'm off to do company research.

and (yikes!) update my resume.

things i love thursday

.new glasses.
.peanut butter and apple slices.
.over enthusiastic baseball fans.
.crystal light: raspberry ice.
.rearranging the furniture.
.looking through old agendas and journals.
.the recent cool(ish) spell.
.frisky mornings (teehee).
.nashi.

four-eyes fashion

i have horrible eyesight, but i almost always wear contacts. i save those "glasses days" for when i absolutely can't bear the idea of putting my contacts in. but yesterday while shopping with Ro, i bought new glasses. they are a fun switch from my dark frames and at this price (5250yen) i might just have to become a regular glasses wearer, a bonafide four eyes, complete with a glasses collection. hello fashion メガネ:



p.s. i don't know what my vision is uncorrected but my contacts are -6.0 which is off the chart i found. ha. anyway, my new glasses give me 1.2 vision - better than 20/20! for anyone else who has been confused by the japanese (metric) way for measuring eye sight:

metric/snellen/estimated prescription

2.0 = 20/10 = zero
1.3 = 20/15 = zero
1.0 = 20/20 = zero to -0.25
0.8 = 20/25
0.6 = 20/30 = -0.50
0.5 = 20/40 = -0.75
0.4 = 20/50 = -1.00 to -1.25
0.2 = 20/100 = -1.75 to -2.00
0.1 = 20/200 = -2.00 to -2.50

photo much?!

i finally uploaded my mt. fuji

pictures onto my computer.

in 31 days i took 1883 photos.

no matter how you do the math,

that's a LOT of photos.

yeah, wowza.

a preview:


"purple august"
august 12, 2009
4:40am

friday ☆s

☆ as i folded a forever21 bag from my shopping the other day, i noticed the "John 3:16" on the bottom. interesting. doesn't In-n-Out Burger do this too?

☆ i got a "get one free" popsicle stick on my last garigari-kun. almost didn't even notice!

☆ i am wearing my new gramicci shorts and they are awesome. love them.

☆ damn the post office for being so efficient and doing what they say they will do when they say they will. now my mom has to pay to ship the package to japan AGAIN because i was gone when they delivered it and then went to fuji for a month. note: the post office will only hold packages for 2 weeks before returning to sender. sigh.

☆ Ro and i are going to california pizza kitchen tonight. yay for free refills on flavored lemomade! and great jamaican jerk chicken pizza.

☆ we're going to go shopping too. a rain jacket for him and these uniqlo shorts for me. i wore them at Ro's the other day and they are fabulous. (clearly making up for lost "fun summer shorts" time)

☆ then early tomorrow morning we'll be joined by a friend and coworker of his to climb mt. fuji. his coworker is driving and hopefully we've allowed enough time to get to the top by dinner. i hope the weather is good. it was bad when Ro hiked earlier this month to see me (melt). oh, and i'll be sporting my new hiking skirt. mountain climbing is no excuse not to look cute, right?? ;)

☆ oh, hey, did someone say OKINAWA??! yeah, that's what i thought. t-minus 15 days. :)

things i love thursday

.perfect sunrises.
.new clothes.
.peanut butter on crackers.
.french toast.
.snuggling at 3776meters.
.coal burning kotatsu.
.the wind in your face.
.coming back to a smiling boy.
.a glowing tan.

out and about

i woke up this morning at 7:45am (that's a 3 and a half hour sleep in!), made french toast, called the waxing salon, showered and made my way to harajuku. after my appointment (ouch. ouchouchouch.) i stopped in to see Bee at his office/store. they're totally redoing the place so he wasn't free for lunch. i wandered out onto the main street and saw forever21. i eventually bought some cute red shorts and a drape-y short sleeve cardigan. the 2000yen total was refreshing for tokyo shopping. then i walked into H&M, now that there's not a 4 hour line just to get in. i've decided that the store is only encouraging bad fashion choices. one or two pieces with some simple items might be alright, but head to toe H&M is just too much. oh but you better believe there are people doing it. i did buy some cute dark magenta strappy sandals with big rhinestones on them.

the original purpose of my shopping trip (which, at this point has been completely ignored! haha) was to get a rain suit. so, i went to the outdoor store to get myself some gore-tex rain gear, but they didn't have a very big selection. i DID, however, find the northface hiking skirt that i saw several girls sporting this summer. i bought myself a pink one and some gramicci shorts. i had a late lunch at italian tomato (tasty tomato cream sauce pasta and an iced peach tea) but wasn't full and gave in to the golden arches for a cheeseburger and a large qoo (the flavor of qoo at mcdonald's in japan isn't sold anywhere else and i've been known to go just for a large white grape qoo)

since harajuku wasn't coming through on the rain gear, i headed to suidobashi, which is supposedly known for it's outdoor gear shops. i wasn't sure i was even going in the right direction, but eventually came to sakaiya, an outdoor gear shop. i tried on several jacket/pant rain suits, and debated for longer than necessary about what color to get, but eventually settled on a Low Alpine Gore-tex rain suit that's gray on the top with a coral pink-ish body and gray pants. and the pants are long (unlike the north face rain suits which were borderline highwaters) which was a huge selling point for me at 5'8". it wasn't super expensive, and has Gore-tex, so i'm happy about that too. why the sudden need for a rain suit (that i'm BACK from mt fuji)? because i'm climbing mt fuji this weekend with Ro and two of his friends. i saw way too many people come up fuji with improper rain gear for the conditions and i'm not going to be one of them!

speaking of Ro, last night we bought plane tickets to okinawa for the second week in september. for a week!!! i can't wait!! after some drama while i was gone, we're back to good and there are plans underway that we are both looking forward to. i'll admit i'm totally smitten but do fear we've gotten pretty serious pretty quickly. he gets jealous over things that i don't even notice; i've been single for close to 5 years (minus a 3 month boyfriend last year), so i'm not very "practiced" in the ways of being half of a couple, but we're learning. and things are good.

i came home to a postcard from myself. i sent it out on the 15th from the summit of mt fuji and it's already here! wow, post office. impressive, to say the least. now i'm off to do the dishes and put something together that resembles dinner.

quote of the day, one day at a time...

funny enough, i returned the same way last year.

"One of the trickiest things about life, is that, at times, it happens so slowly. Yet... if... it... happened... any... faster... you'd... already... have... everything... you... ever... wanted... without... learning... to... enjoy... the... ride."

-the Universe


i left for mt. fuji on july 17, in a whirlwind of activity of packing, finishing up the 2 week summer program at my old school, saying goodbye to Ro, and making sure my apartment was in a state that would stand me being gone for almost 6 weeks.

i'm back (10 days) earlier than i planned, for a handful of reasons. some may be seen petty, some romantic, some ridiculous, some responsible and some just about friends and prioritizing. i am learning what is important in my life right now and trying to figure things out one day at a time.

now there's a stillness that is both welcomed and unsettling. i've got things i should and need to do, yet nothing is so pressing that i can't take it easy for a couple days.

one day at a time...